Sakamichi No Apollon

dont you love it when you get into a series because of the amazing soundtrack and turns out it's apparently as good as it sounds? so ever since i noticed yoko kanno's scores in zankyou no terror ive been an ardent devotee of her works; theyre always very genuine, well polished, and capable to elevate the mood of a series into perfection. thats the reason why i decided to land on sakamichi no apollon, another series directed by shinichiro watanabe with music provided by yoko kanno. yes, seeing these two iconic names in the production team definitely boosted my expectation up to the roof because its a solid throwback to their previous work that is cowboy bebop. so is sakamichi no apollon on par with that particular masterpiece?

this series is based off a manga with the same title by yuki kodama. it tells the story of kaoru nishimi, a new student who loves to play piano and is pictured as rather stoic in public due to his social anxiety issue. but later he made friends with sentaro kawabuchi AKA your typical high school 'bad boy' trope with a facial scar and nonchalant outer attitude, and also sentaro's childhood friend, ritsuko mukae, whom kaoru gradually grew feelings for. kaoru and sentaro happened to share the same interest, which is music. kaoru whos basically used to classical music slowly learned about jazz from sentaro, which leads them to numerous underground sessions beneath a record store. i get that this show is trying to pinpoint romance as its core strength besides being a musical series but in the end the relationship between kaoru and sentaro is what matters the most. sentaro, although being pictured as pretty badass on the outside, actually bottles up a lot of issues as well that he couldnt share with people. that's why he finds relief in playing drums, and kaoru is such a perfect complement for this. i really like how the music fits all of the scenes so well, despite of jazz being a quite rare genre to support slice of life series in general. this is also where music speaks louder than the actual dialogues!

the only drawback is that sakamichi no apollon tries to make the plot seem complex but sometimes it just gets overly melodramatic with kaoru making bad decisions almost every single time like hes 7. also im not sure what to feel about ritsuko since she doesnt undergo a proper character development, leaving her as she is from the start until finish. sentaro is so good though, he makes the viewers experience his emotional pain during hard times even though he doesnt express it so often. other than that, this is a pretty decent series to watch. of course it's not comparable to other watanabe works but the stylish art and over the top soundtrack truly make up what sakamichi no apollon lacks in other aspects. and with that i will leave yoko kanno's lullaby of birdland cover below which is also one of my fave pieces of the whole soundtracks.